Nine-hole course offends US namesake
An Irish hotelier has invited solicitors for Pebble Beach golf course in California, host to the US Open, to visit the nine-hole course on Pebble Beach next to his 65-bedroom hotel.
The legal firm, London-based Denton, Wilde and Sapte, has written to Ronnie Counihan, chief executive of Renvyle House hotel in Connemara, County Galway, on behalf of its US client, objecting to the use of the name Pebble Beach.
Counihan said: "It's a bit ridiculous, really. Our course is built on a stretch of land called Pebble Beach and it's always been called that. We've no plans to expand or anything."
The Irish course, which is used only by hotel guests, has been around since the 1930s. It was a mention of it on the hotel's Web site that drew the fire of its US namesake.
Counihan said: "They have asked for a meeting with us, and so we'll do that in the next couple of weeks. We'll put them up in the hotel as our guests."
